Summary: God has a wonderful plan for your life.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (KJV)

For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (ESV)

TRUST

Solomon, in his profound wisdom instructed us to trust in the Lord.

• Trust is a very difficult thing to truly exhibit.

• To trust someone else you must first relinquish your trust in yourself.

• This is exceedingly difficult for us humans.

o Many teamwork workshops include an exercise where every member of the team must fall backwards from a high ledge into the arms of their team members.

o It sounds and even looks easy.

o However, it is a genuine test of trust.

o It is very difficult to allow yourself to fall, backwards, into what you cannot see, on the slim hope that your coworkers – a bunch of people who have no vested interest in whether you live or die, are going to catch you.

o In that position you learn just how difficult it really is to trust.

• The problem is that, for many of us, the lessons that life has taught us have led us to the conclusion that the only person we can truly trust is ourselves.

o However, as it is with many of our carnal conclusions, nothing could be further from the truth.

o The Lord is the only one that we can truly trust, even above ourselves.

• The problem is that true trust in him is often a last resort for us.

• Like the woman with the issue of blood, we tend to exhaust every possible avenue available to us before we finally place our full trust in the Lord.

• We tend to come to him as a last result – when in truthfulness he should be you first resort.

• This is mainly because we have a predisposition to trust in what we can see and feel.

• We have been conditioned to trust our natural senses.

o We use them to define our world as well as our possibilities and impossibilities.

o In many cases we have simply learned that it is safest to walk by sight.

o We have learned that we can trust what we see and understand.

o We have learned that it is safest to sail in waters that allow us to keep the shore in sight.

• However, the wisdom of Proverbs declares, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding." (Proverbs 3:5 ESV)

• What a difficult piece of instruction!

• Not only are we commanded to trust the Lord rather than our own ability, we are also admonished not to trust our own understanding.

Solomon has directed us to subjugate our senses to our faith in God.

• Trust the Lord, he declares, beyond, or even in spite of, your own understanding.